Thin-plate holding containers for accommodating thin-plates such as semiconductor wafers or the like for storage or transportation are generally known.
Such a thin-plate holding container mainly includes a container body, and a lid unit for covering the upper opening of the container body. The container body is provided with members for supporting the thin-plates, such as semiconductor wafers or the like therein. Such a thin-plate holding container requires its interior to be kept clean during transportation in order to prevent contamination or the like on the surface of the thin-plates, such as semiconductor wafers or the like, accommodated therein. Therefore, the container is sealed. In other words, the lid unit is fixed to the container body for sealing closed the interior of the container. There are various structures for fixing the lid unit to the container body.
The plates are stored in the container body and the lid unit is fixed to the container body in a plant for manufacturing plates such as semiconductor wafers. In this state, the containers are transported to a semiconductor manufacturing plant or the like. Generally, in the semiconductor manufacturing plant, the semiconductor wafers or the like are transferred to a specifically designed container for use on a production line.
When transferring the semiconductor wafers or the like into a production line container as described above, the above-described thin-plate holding container is used only for transportation, and thus has no use after transportation. Therefore, such thin-plate holding containers, after having been emptied, are returned to the plant of origin or discarded. However, it is inefficient in terms of usage, and may result in waste of resources and increase of waste products.
Therefore, the present inventor has proposed an invention in which a lid unit receiving portion of the container body is improved so as to be capable of mating with various types of lid units, whereby the container body can also be used in the production line before (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-289795). However, there remains a problem in that container bodies having structures different from such container body cannot be used in the production line.
In view of such circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a lid unit for a thin-plate holding container, in which the container body, as is, can also be used in the production line after transportation and the like.